Death worsts all flesh that comes under it! True; but faith worsts death itself.
He that has the power of death is the devil; but the Christ of God, Object and Giver of faith, is greater than he. The Christ ever was and is above Satan. He became, indeed, obedient unto death,-the death of the Cross; that, through death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. And, if He gave His heel to b bitten, it was in grace, that in bruising Satan's head He might do it as Redeemer. " His be the Victor's name, Who fought our fight alone; Triumphant saints no honor claim, His conquest was their own.
" By weakness and defeat, He won the meed and crown; Trod all our foes beneath His feet, By being trodden down. He hell in hell laid low; Made sin, He sin o'erthrew; Bow'd to the grave and burst it so, And Death, by dying slew."
Yet, however, a man may be ready to endure all hardness; and however he may see what Christ did, in His first coming, in His death and resurrection, he will not have victory in death unless he see and abide in communion with Christ in the heavenly places. 'Tis only with a risen Christ that relationship can. be traced, that union exists,-a living Christ in heaven is ours. The writer of the hymn, just quoted, had. no settled peace: for his faith stopped short of an ascended Christ. It was the know-ledge of an ascended Christ, alive in heaven, that led one to say " It would kill me, with very joy,-if I heard I was a dying."